By Nuel Suji – Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has commended his colleagues, saying they have broken all records to surpass the achievements of their predecessors in office.
Dogara said members of the 8th House of Representatives have delivered on its core mandate of law-making in “fashioning out legislative solutions to myriad of problems facing the nation.”
Addressing members and former colleagues including some former speakers on the occasion of the two-year anniversary of the current House, said members’ cooperation was responsible for the cohesion that provided a conducive environment for major achievements to be attained in the last 2 years.
The Speaker noted that the 8th Assembly introduced 1064 bills out of which only 50 are Executive bills. He said the House also addressed 610 public petitions in the last 2 years.
These achievements, he reckoned, surpassed those recorded by previous assemblies.
“In terms of core mandate of lawmaking, we have remained a bastion of legislative activism. Indeed, members of the 8th House of Representatives are in keen competition with one another in fashioning out legislative solutions to myriad of problems facing the nation. That is why in all facets of law-making, we can comfortably and conveniently assert that we have broken all records,” he said.
He said the Senate bills transmitted to the House – 21 and Private Members Bills – 993. A total of 126 Bills have been passed by the House and the others are at various stages in the legislative mill. 27 Bills have received Presidential assent and a lot more are in the pipeline.
He also praised their patriotism and willingness to rise above party affiliations when critical issues of national importance come before them for legislative processing when he delivered an address in commemoration of 2 years of the 8th Assembly.
“I must mention this to our collective credit, that the cohesion in the House is one of the major achievements of the 8th House. Without this, all else would have fallen apart as valuable hours of legislative business would have been dissipated on the management of internal squabbles.
“This we achieved by always placing patriotism above partisanship which is key to the unremitting exemplary maturity that is seen on the floor, week in week out. It was Albert Einstein who said, ‘life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving’”.
The speaker advised them to stick to the path, saying patriotism is and will always be what will keep them moving and balanced.
“Permit me to commend and deeply appreciate you all as we look forward to even greater cohesion in the years ahead,” he stated
Public Petitions received in the last two years are over 610 in number and the Committee on Public Petitions conducts Public Hearings on these petitions almost every week to ensure citizen access to the legislature.
Each of the achievements highlighted above is unsurpassed by any previous Assembly.”
The Speaker also noted the sheer volume of the bills attests to the vibrancy of the House in its attempt to legislate on key areas of the national life at a very trying time, saying whereas it is immediately difficult to measure the impact of these Bills, a thorough examination of them shows the interest of the House in getting the economy out of the current recession that has affected both large and small businesses as well as families across Nigeria.
